Albanian Adventure

I can’t even begin to tell you what an amazing experience Albania was. First, I want to say thank you for the prayers and the support that you sent! It’s amazing to get to meet the family of God all around the world, and I wish I could share this experience with each of you that read this. But I don’t think words will be enough.

Disclaimer: I am not a singer, and I am not a drummer. So, yes, I know I can't keep beat with this song. :) We're just having fun.

So, Thursday, August 1^st,the Spinas (Stephano, Rina, and Giulia) picked us up, we crammed all of our luggage in their car, crammed ourselves into their car, and headed off to Albania. It was hot, long, but fun! We took a ferry from Sicily to mainland Italy, drove across the bottom of the boot, and stopped in Taranto for a Bible study at the church. This church in Taranto was the church the Spina’s used to worship with when they lived there. Then, some members from the church took us to dinner (It was GREAT!) before they dropped us off at the port in Brindisi, where we took an overnight ship to Albania. We boarded the boat around 11pm, it left around 3am, and we arrived in Albania around 10am. The boat was packed. I’ve never seen anything like it. I literally had to step over peoples bodies everywhere I walked. The halls, the rooms, everywhere was just packed with people and entire families laying on sheets on the floor.

We landed in Vlora and waited some time for our ride. Sokol and his family, and Reuben and his family picked us up in the church van and we were off to a camp near a town called Serenda. It took us about five hours (with stops) of constanly curvy, windy roads that went up and down the mountains. Some people got a little sick, but luckily Alan and I were prepared with “travel gum” that a pharmacist recommended to us in Catania for sea-sickness. We both chomped on it till it made our entire mouths go numb.

Alan and I didn’t know what to expect of Albania. We had no idea it was such a mountainous, beautiful country with an amazing sea! There will be so many pictures that I will be posting with this blog, and probably separately on facebook later on.

Camp!

We arrived at camp on Friday evening, which was the last day of the teen’s camp week. We met several teens, and there were five baptisms in the Ionian sea at the end of the camp. The next morning, the teens (some of them) packed up and left, and then the families came in for the family camp week. I’ve never seen so many young people at a “family” church event. The average age was probably around mine and Alan’s age. I was told that Albania has a really young population – their average age is only 30. What was also awesome, was there were so many people there who weren’t Christians. A lot of people were family members of Christians or even people who have only been studying. In the states, I always felt like camp was the opposite of this – the majority were Christians. Most people who aren’t, aren’t interested in coming.

Our typical day was something like this:

7am – wake up
7:30 – breakfast

8:30/9am – devotional

10am – free time until lunch

1pm – lunch

2pm – free time/organized activities (such as volleyball, soccer)

5:30pm – study for women (it wasn’t every day)

7pm – main study

8pmish – dinner

9pm – evening activities

The theme for the week was “The Family.” Stephano gave the main lesson every evening. Alan was asked after our arrival to help organize athletic events with some other people, and also to give one of the devos one morning. It was his first time giving a lesson with a translator, so that was interesting. The studies focused much on our relationships within our physical families, but also on our relationships in our spiritual family as well.

Speaking of translators, the Albanians are so good with languages. It was rare for a person not to speak English, and I mean speak it well. Also, most of them speak Italian well. There were a couple of people who didn’t speak English, and Italian was our common language and we had to communicate that way. It was so strange for me. I never thought I’d have Italian as a common language and a means to communicate with someone from another country. Alan and I are so thankful to Ervin! He translated everything from Albanian for us, and he did such a great job all week long!

One of our nightly devos

We met so many people, and, even though it was just a short week, we feel like we’ve made relationships that will last. We had so many opportunities to talk with people about them, us, our work, and their/our relationship with God. It was an amazing experience, and we were so encouraged by them! It was amazing to get to meet more of our Christian family.

After we said goodbye to everyone Saturday morning, we got on a Pullman bus and headed for Vlora with the rest of the people on the bus headed to Tirana (further north). They dropped us off, and we stayed with the preacher there in Vlora. We went to church in two different cities on Sunday morning. Vlora being one of them and I don’t remember the name of the other city. The preacher we were staying with was filling in for the preacher in the other town, so that’s why we went to both. We got to meet more lovely people that day. Much to Alan’s delight, we finally got to try some Albanian food that wasn’t camp food.

We left for Italy on the boat Monday afternoon. We arrived in Taranto late late late (like midnight) Monday night. We stayed in Taranto until Wednesday morning, because Stephano and Rina wanted to spend time visiting church members there that they used to work with when they lived in Taranto. Tuesday evening Stephano and Fabrizio (we stayed with him and his brother while we were in Taranto) gave Alan and I a tour of Taranto. I really like that city. It has a nice downtown. We got to see an old castle, a building that Mussolini built, and some cool fountains. We finally arrived back in Catania Wednesday afternoon after a two week adventure that I don’t think Alan and I will likely soon forget!

Some of the fun events/facts from camp:

Alan and I slept in a really tiny tent

We swam in the Ionian sea every day

You could see the Greek Islands from the beach

The beach was a ten minute walk from camp

There was absolutely nothing around us – it was like going back in time in a way

We saw horses (once), and goats and cows on a daily basis as they went by our camp

I entered a swimming competition and finished 5^th out of 13 (only 6 people finished though)

We sang songs in Albanian ( I think )

Alan, Giulia, and I performed in a skit about Joseph

Giulia and I had lines in Albanian in this skit….who knows if we said them right

We played a lot of ping pong

We played a lot of UNO

We talked a lot with people

Alan cut his foot on a rock in the river and caused quite a scene

After Alan cut his foot on a rock, he spilt a coke all over himself, and not 30 seconds later a wasp came up and stung him on the knee (obviously not his day).

For those of you who wondered, I tried, but was unsuccessful at not laughing at the previously mentioned events
There was an arm wrestling competition

We had nutella with bread everyday for breakfast.

There were about 3 million yellow jackets around whenever we ate

We made friends

We praised God

We learned a whole lot

I met a family who knows my Aunt on one side of my family, and then I met a girl who knows my uncle from the other side of my family (WHAT?! Mind boggling)

We played the cup game

We had a bonfire

At the bonfire we heard testimonies from different families…Alan and I got called up to be one of them (wasn’t expecting that)

Now we have a passion for Albania and European missions in general

We would love to go back next year if possible.

If anyone who reads this blog is at all interested in serving as missionaries in Europe, please please email me. I know that the Bible school in Florence needs more workers, they are asking for workers in Albania and the Hague (Holland) as well. Alan and feel this passion for European missions growing. We want to use our contacts to help get people sent to places that want some help.

PS. Please check out Alan's slide show on youtube. It's got way more pictures from this whole trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIxi28hf0WU&feature=youtu.be